About Us

Pop in to the High Weald Dairy and you are likely to bump in to me or my husband Mark. It’s very much a hands-on family business. Mark might well be in the dairy making our award winning Sussex cheese while I’ll be in the office making sure that everything runs smoothly. Here’s a little bit more about us and our business.

browse our range of cheeses

Our sheepish start

During the late 1980s Mark and his parents, Guy and Audrey, established a flock of 150 British Friesland sheep. The idea was to milking them at their small family farm in Duddleswell and sell the milk to a local cheesemaker. However, with each sheep producing up to 3 litres of rich milk daily, they were soon faced with a surplus. As a result, they began to bottle the fresh milk and sell it to local health food shops. At this time it was in high demand as a delicious and nutritious alternative for people with an intolerance to cow milk. Sheep milk yogurt followed next, and then a selection of cheeses; 100% sheep milk Halloumi – originally supplied to the North London Cypriot community, Medita – a version of Greek feta cheese, hard mature Duddleswell and Sussex Slipcote soft cheeses.

High Weald Dairy Growing sales

As the cheese sales grew, so did the number of sheep in the flock, although there was a limit to how many could be kept on the small family farm. Soon other small dairy sheep farms began supplying them with sheep milk, so that they could sell cheese to retailers throughout the year. The range of organic cow milk cheeses developed gradually, initially as hard cheeses, but more recently as semi soft continental style cheeses.

The maturing business

High Weald Dairy Farm Shop for Sussex Cheese

Surprisingly by 2003, the business outgrew the facility at Duddleswell and production was moved to Tremains Farm, in Horsted Keynes, a 270-acre farm where 250 organic dairy cows are milked on site.

So a former grain store on the farm was transformed in to a modern dairy where Mark, and the cheesemakers who work alongside him, have been able to widen the range of cheeses produced.

Our cheese obsession

It’s fair to say that cheese is a bit of an obsession for Mark and, since I joined the business, his enthusiasm has rubbed off on me. He tells me I’m a lucky lady to have one of the cheeses named after me (Sister Sarah)!

You’ll find us both at the dairy on a daily basis and, when we’re not making cheese, we’re often out selling it at one of the local markets or designing recipes that uses our cheese. Even when we go on holiday I’ll often find Mark has chosen a destination that just happens to be close to an interesting cheese producer. One of our other great passions is walking our dogs in the beautiful Sussex countryside in which we live and work – and did I mention that one of them is named Pickle?

Award Winning team

High Weald Dairy Team of Award Winning Cheese Makers

We are supported in the business by a small but passionate team at the High Weald Dairy and currently make at least 15 different cheeses with the entire process for each one taking place on the farm – and you can never be sure when another one will emerge as Mark loves to try out new ideas.

With British consumers becoming more concerned with traceability, sustainability and supporting homegrown businesses, we are able respond to this need and so the High Weald Dairy continues to go from strength to strength. You can buy our cheeses from farm shops and farmers markets in Sussex and from some larger shops and suppliers in Sussex, Kent, Surrey and further afield. We also offer tiered cheeses for use as an alternative wedding or celebration cake and use our distribution network to support other Sussex producers.

Our surroundings

Among this landscape of farmland, woodland, historic parks and ridge-top villages is where you’ll find our dairy.

Tremains Farm is a 270-acre farm which is typical of the High Weald, among rolling hills where farmland is interspersed with woodland.

The dairy is close to the village of Horsted Keynes and many of the cheeses pay homage to the local area including Duddleswell, a nutty cheddar-style cheese, named after the village where the High Weald Dairy was founded and St Giles, a semi-soft creamy cheese, named after the church in Horsted Keynes.

The High Weald is a beautiful area and you will find plenty to do should you decide to pay us a visit with charming rural pubs just minutes away, beautiful woodland walks in the surrounding countryside and both The Bluebell Railway and the National Trust’s Sheffield Park and Garden within a couple of miles of the dairy.

Quality & Accreditations

Trusted, Certified, Award-Winning – at High Weald Dairy, quality and integrity aren’t just words we use, they’re backed up by independent, rigorous certification. We’re proud to hold accreditations from two of the most respected bodies in food production, giving our customers and stockists complete confidence in every cheese we make.

Soil Association Organic Certified

High Weald Dairy is certified organic by the Soil Association (Licence No. P1772), the UK’s leading organic certification body.

This means our milk and cheese meet the strict standards set out in UK organic regulations covering everything from animal welfare and land management to the sourcing of ingredients and the traceability of our products from farm to shop.

Organic certification isn’t a one-off badge; it requires ongoing inspection and re-certification, so you can trust that our organic credentials are current and continuously verified.

View Certificate

SALSA Plus Cheese Certified

We are also certified under the SALSA plus Cheese Audit Standard (Site Code: 724), a food safety and quality scheme developed specifically for smaller and artisan food producers, in association with the Specialist Cheesemakers Association.

This certification confirms that our production, maturation and cutting processes across our full range of cheeses meet exacting hygiene, safety and quality standards recognised throughout the food industry.

Like our organic status, this accreditation is maintained through regular independent audits.

View Certificate

Sustainability

At the High Weald Dairy, we are committed to protecting the special landscape in which we live and work and aim to lead the cheese-making industry in minimising the impact of its activities on the environment. We do this in a number of ways from recycling waste to using sustainable forms of energy to power our operation.

Here are some of the steps we’ve taken to ensure our business is as efficient as possible:

Since 2015, approximately 80% of the dairy’s hot water has been provided from a biomass boiler. The biomass we use is all supplied by selective coppicing of the farm’s woodlands.
Water is supplied by the dairy’s own 65-metre-deep borehole and is reused wherever possible.
We sort and separate our waste and reuse or recycle wherever possible and promote recycling both internally and to our customers and suppliers.

We use solar energy to produce half of the electricity used in the dairy with our own 70 KW photo-electric panels array. We aim to add to this and have a target of producing 100% of the dairy’s electricity needs on the farm.
Our solar energy system helps to minimise toxic emissions as does our choice and use of vans.
We’re proud that we meet or exceed all the environmental legislation that relates to the company.